New Orleans Tech Chief Vows WiFi Net Here to Stay 213
breckinshire writes "After Hurricane Katrina last year, New Orleans set up a city-wide wireless network to encourage businesses to return and assist in recovery. The New Orleans technology chief recently said that he intends to make the network permanent, in spite of state law and the disapproval of telecoms."
Re:My Irony Asplode (Score:1, Informative)
I live in an area of New Orleans that didn't flood and have no real use for the city's free wifi.
Acting like a spoiled brat, BellSouth withdrew their offer to donate a building to the city after the free wifi plan was announced.
Washington Post article [washingtonpost.com] - registration probably needed...
Freepress version [freepress.net].
Re:He did a talk about this at Spring VON (Score:3, Informative)
Q: (to the effect of)How would you respond to telco attempts to outlaw muni WiFi networks?
A: "Physically"
Re:Go N'Orleans! (Score:3, Informative)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-66780647
Comments on Ray Nagin's appology:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/17/nagin.city/ [cnn.com]
Re:Law (Score:5, Informative)
FTFLA:
A growing number of cities and towns want to develop their own public Wi-Fi networks. But they face stiff opposition from telecom and cable providers.
You will find that there are several state laws [cio.com] on the books as well as US House [loc.gov] and Senate bills [loc.gov] pending that would prohibit or limit a city's ability to provide WiFi services. To make things fun, there is a competing bill [loc.gov] in the Senate that would make it illegal to make it illegal to make a law that would prohibit cities from offering services (!!=1).
Our political system amazes me...if we could only harness all that wasted energy.
Re:My Irony Asplode (Score:5, Informative)
You hear this argument all over the place. I think it is time to debunk it. The telcos may have (and I emphasize MAY) laid them to begin with but in this case it is federal dollars paying for replacement of ALL the infrastructure (including the telco lines). The program responsible for it in FEMA is called Infrastructure (commonly called "Public Assistance"). In a normal disaster the federal split is 75% federal and 25% state. In a catastrophic disaster that drops to 90% fed 10% state. In the case of Katrina even that has been waived with the federal paying 100%.
PA pays for doing public buildings, public services such as power & communications, roads, water and waste water treatment, and debris removal. There are whole categories that they cover. It isn't the telcos laying anything in New Orleans AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE so please stop spreading this little white lie.
B.
DISCLAIMER: I was previously employed by FEMA but now work for my State doing the same thing.
Re:Let's be honest... (Score:2, Informative)
In New Orleans, Burger King is offering $5,000 sign on bonuses. They need the employees that bad. But they can't get people to work there. People can't get houses built. All those welfare lazies could come back to NO and work. But they don't want to.
Basically, it's racist to expect blacks to work, is what you're saying.
Re:Let's be honest... (Score:3, Informative)
No one down here left really cares what you are, as long as you are wanting to work and help. I just can't stand all this shit on the radio and tv about people "not having a RIGHT" to come back...anyone has a right...just that like in the old days, you have to work to earn your keep and contribute to society and be worth your weight...
Re:My Irony Asplode (Score:2, Informative)
I don't have to imagine it -- I've seen it. Back in the 90s the Orange County Board of Directors approved of a plan to build a toll road that cuts through San Joaquin Hills, then a pristine California wilderness area. The toll road was touted as a completely privatized, non-tax funded roadway that would quickly pay for itself and become a model for similar toll roads across the nation.
Fast forward to the present. The San Joaquin / Foothill 73 Toll Road is a fiscal nightmare and a public outrage:
- Despite all claims to the contrary, the toll road was financed by taxpayer revenue, which has never been recouped by the Transportation Corridor Authority (TCA), the private entity responsible for building and running the toll road system.
- Instead of paying for itself and becoming a profitable operation, the toll road loses from *hundreds to thousands of dollars every day* -- due to inflated ridership projections and poor road surface maintenance. (Who wants to drive a speedway full of potholes?)
- Far from becoming an exemplary precedent for other toll road proposals, the SoCal toll road has turned into a transportation fiasco, discouraging other municipalities across the US from embarking on similar privatized public-access roadway projects.
After years of accumulating massive financial losses, the TCA had to sell portions of the toll road to the Orange County Transportation Agency (or OCTA, which runs the freeway and public bus system) -- on the condition that OCTA must not widen existing freeways! In other words, a government transportation department is barred from upgrading its freeway system to better accomodate rising traffic *because it would make a useless toll road even more useless*.
It's corporation-hatched disasters like this and Enron that make me extremely suspicious of business nowadays. Then again, history is full of shady business dealings. Reminds me of a political cartoon of a CEO at his office desk saying, "At our company we make money the old-fashioned way. We steal it...."